Building the perfect website
Captivate.fm is a podcast hosting platform that covers distribution to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other directories. It also includes analytics and some monetization features. The platform lets you create podcast shows and manage them from a single dashboard.
Captivate includes a website feature with your plan. The idea is to give every podcast a quick web presence. But the execution is quite basic: there are only three predetermined templates, customization options are limited, and the resulting sites tend to look similar across shows.
You cannot create unlimited custom pages or publish blog posts freely. Captivate's website will not import your podcast reviews from Apple Podcasts or your YouTube videos. Integrations with marketing tools are minimal, and overall flexibility is much tighter than what a dedicated website builder provides.
One thing worth noting: Beamly plans are typically cheaper on average than Captivate.fm, and Beamly does not impose download or listening limits on your audience.
What Captivate's website lacks
The three-template limit is the most visible constraint. With only three starting points and limited design controls, your site ends up looking like a lot of other Captivate-powered sites. If brand differentiation matters to your show, that is a real problem. For a sense of what is possible with more design control, check out these podcast website examples.
Beyond visual design, the content tools are thin. There is no drag-and-drop page builder, no flexible section editor, and no way to build out resource pages, sponsor pages, or rich landing pages. The blog functionality is limited, which shuts down a major avenue for organic search growth.
Captivate also does not support podcast review display, YouTube integration, or more advanced engagement tools like listener voice messages, guest intake forms, or contact forms with subscriber capture. For podcasters who want their website to actively support audience growth, these missing pieces add up.
What Beamly brings to Captivate users
Beamly connects to Captivate through RSS and imports all your episodes automatically. You can search for your podcast during setup or paste the RSS feed directly. The theme selection is much broader, and you can switch templates at any time without losing content.
The editing experience is where things change the most. Beamly gives you a full drag-and-drop page builder where you can customize nearly every aspect of your site. Each page can have its own layout, and you can add content blocks for text, images, video, embeds, episode lists, and more.
Beamly imports podcast reviews from Apple Podcasts and Podchaser automatically, and lets visitors submit reviews directly on your site. You can import YouTube channels and playlists, set up guest intake forms, add contact forms and subscriber buttons, and connect tools like Google Analytics, Instagram, Twitter, and email platforms.
The audio player supports full visual customization, social sharing, speed controls, and a global sticky player that continues playback across pages. Every page, post, and episode has native SEO settings.
Memberships, paywalled content, and digital product sales are built in with 0% Beamly transaction fees.
How to connect Captivate to Beamly
- Sign up for a Beamly trial and start a new site.
- Search for your Captivate podcast or paste the RSS feed.
- Pick a theme and publish your initial version.
- Customize your pages, player, and site structure.
- Connect your custom domain and continue publishing through Captivate.
Episodes sync automatically after setup.
